Description To The Crazy Cows

 R.H.  Sherwood’s

Flashback

To the crazy Crow

There was a time in the early 1940’s when the good people of Dalhousie Mountain believed that the cows on one man’s farm were seemly possessed by the devil.  They believed the cows went crazy. 

There may be a few people in Pictou County who, although not born at the time of the strange occurrences, become aware of the story of the crazy cows as it was handed down by word of mouth through families who live in the vicinity.

Dalhousie Mountain was first settled by someone, Peter Arthur.  Later, a number of families arrived from the lowlands of Scotland arrived.  After trouble with their land grants, which was settled by the Earl of Dalhousie, the grateful settlers names their section for their benefactor.

Here, at Dalhousie Mountain, the settlers worked hard and prospered in the rugged way of pioneering life.  They farmed, cut timber, built homes and barns, and raised good livestock; particularly their cows.  And then out of a clear sky, a strange thing happened to their livestock, which, they declared among themselves was because the “cows had gone crazy.” Actually, it wasn’t the cows that went crazy.  Those animals were as quiet and contented as they ever were.  Instead, it was crazy things that happened around them that upset the routine of daily farm life.

It is difficult at this time to pin point the exact year of the unusual happening, but according to men who had had the story from their fathers, it happened sometime in the mid 1840’s.

What happened was confined to one farm and one farmer only, and it was on his property that the unusual happened, which, to this day has never been explained.

It all began in a simple fashion when the owner sent the hired man to put the cows in their stalls for milking.  This apparently was done, but when the men entered the cow barn they found that all the animals were loose and milling about the barn floor.  The farmer naturally, was quite upset, believing that the hired man had not fastened the cows properly in their stalls.  After putting the cows back in their places, he berated the hired man for his neglect, and the pair set to work to milk.  This done they returned to the house.  Within an hour, the family was startled by the commotion coming from the cow barn.  The farmer and the hired man rushed out, and as they swung the barn door open, the noise suddenly stopped.  But the amazed men saw the cows were again loose from their stalls.

Believing that someone was hidden in the barn, and letting the cows loose, the men searched the barn from the ground floor to the hayloft.  They found no one who might have caused the mischief.  Greatly puzzled, the men fastened the cows in their accustomed places.  But, as a precaution, the farmer roped each cow to a bar of the stanchion that held it.  Satisfied that nothing more would happen, the two men returned to the house. 

Within a short time, another barn commotion sent the farmer and his hired man to the barn, to stop in amazement when they saw all the cows again loose on the barn floor.  In addition, they found that two of the cows had managed to pass through a small side door of the darn; a door too small for even an averaged sized man to squeeze through.  Again the barn was searched, but no one was found.  Once again the farmer put the cows in their stalls, but this time he chained each one to the stanchion bars with heavy chains, which were locked with a heavy padlock. 

Nothing happened for several nights, then, while neighbours were visiting the farmhouse, the loud noise in the barn was heard.  Rushing to the barn, the noise stopped abruptly as the barn door was opened.  But all saw that the cows were loose, and yet the stanchion bars, the heavy chains and the padlocks were still in place.  No one in the district could offer an explanation, and the place became known as “The Barn with the Crazy Cows.”

Strange as it may seem, the trouble that beset the farmer and his cows lasted only a month.  After that, all returned to normal, and the Dalhousie Mountain farmer was never troubled again.  But all his life he puzzled over the strange occurrences, and to this day the mystery of The Crazy Cows has never been solved. 

By Roland H. Sherwood (D. Litt)

Historical Writer